BC Representative participates in 2nd National Conference “Cosmocity: Migration, Religion, and Intercultural City”

On the 10th of November, La Sapienza University in Rome hosted the 2nd National Conference “Cosmocity: Migration, Religion, and Intercultural City,” which represented an occasion to promote and spread the interreligious dialogue.

Luigia D’Alessandro, Junior Project Assistant at the Budapest Centre, attended the conference to strengthen the position of the Centre on the importance of the interreligious dialogue as an essential tool for the prevention of genocide and atrocity crimes.

All the speakers of the panel attributed the same relevance to education and dialogue as only means to achieve the planning and development of the modern and, most importantly, intercultural city: the cosmocity. Indeed, as Director of the Religion and Cultural Mediation Master at La Sapienza University Sergio Botta stated, “Dialogue should be promoted not only by religious leaders, but also by economists, politicians, and everyone who’s part of the society.” Professor Stefano Asperti strengthened this concept by claiming that mainly philosophy major students should be the ones more open to communication and comprehension and, hence, the promoters of communication among individuals belonging to different cultures and subcultures.

Dialogue is, therefore, “a path towards the truth; it’s a miracle,” as the representative of Pontificia Università Urbaniana, Ambrogio Bongiovanni, highlighted. Dialogue does not mean using words. Dialogue means recognizing individuals’ identity and reducing the use of words not to position ourselves in favor or against anybody. As Irene De Angelis Curtis, Director of IISS “Leonardo Da Vinci,” concluded her speech, “We are all human. That’s why I share neither a religion, nor A God. This is my religion.”